Why Christ called a man Satan

At various times in our life we are confronted with challenges that cause us to behave as if we were Satan himself.  Often times there are good reasons (if only to us) for our behavior, whether someone was out of line and they needed to be 'told' or they hit a trigger of ours (i.e. stepped on our last good nerve).  What we should be mindful of is the impact that our behavior has/is having on those around us.  Our very behavior could be the reason why people stop attending church, are made to feel that they are not important, feel they have no safe place, think less of themselves, etc...

I have found myself having to climb the wall of doubt after someone's behavior made me feel less than.  One such time was when I was in a Algebra class and the teacher held my test up in front of the class and declared "you are too stupid to be in my class"!  I wanted to become the invisible man and walk out of the class never to return and be heard from again.

Fortunately (or unfortunately depending on your position), my mother was a motivating force all her own and put the teacher, principal and myself on notice that such behavior would not be tolerated and she would indeed be back to check!  Long story short, I was able to come away from Algebra with a good grade but the damage had been done and I would not fully believe in myself for years to come because his words would  resonate in the back of my mind.

Maybe the teacher was trying to motivate me by using a different tactic, maybe the teacher was racist - imagine Utah in the 80's and me the only African American in the class, maybe the teacher simply had a bad day and knew I had potential.  What ever his reason, for a long time I would view him as an evil man.  

One act should not dictate what type of person(s) we are just like it did not with Peter.  Jesus did call him Satan (Matthew 16:23) but He also, a few versus earlier (Matt 16:18), said that Peter was the rock that He would build his church on.  Surely Christ would not build His church on Satan, He was merely letting Peter know that his behavior at that moment was reflective of Satan.

Who/what are your behavior(s) reflective of?

Blessings,

-d